Member Articles

Balancing Life and My Home-Based Business

The Internet helped me stay on top of my game!

Hello- My name is Brooke Stockton. I am a mother, entrepreneur, artist, wife (to-be, again), and community volunteer. I also enjoy every title and fiber of who I am and what I am doing.

I successfully started a home-based business 10 years ago, when I would take my specially painted and designed kids clothing to parties I'd host at the homes of friends and family members. One thing lead to another, and my friends and family encouraged me to "take my show on the road." So I did!

I attended trade shows in Chicago and Las Vegas -- boy, did that change my life! I had orders coming out of my eyes! Soon, I had two reps working for me and I felt like I was painting clothing in my sleep (did I even sleep?). Unfortunately, work soon became no longer was fun for me, and I had to scale back dramatically in order to keep my product unique.

Over the next eight years, I continued to sell to specialty stores throughout the Midwest and to friends and family. Life was back to normal and I felt good again.

Now, I'm going on my 11th year of business (wow, time flies!) and my kids are growing up, so I am using the fabulous tools of the Internet to sell my products. It is the exact mix of customer satisfaction (which is always a top priority) and personalized attention to detail that makes my business successful today.

I will let you in on a little secret though: It doesn't happen over night. I contribute my online success to "never burning a bridge" and keeping my customers happy. Word of mouth and online marketing will also help boost sales.

So, there you have it. I am living proof that you can be a SAHM and have a successful business and love what you're doing, all at the same time!

Nice article. Good advice to stay neutral with the bridges:) The internet is amazing! Think about what you can accomplish so quickly. It's always good to realize when it's not fun anymore, you did the right thing by scaling back. Especially for your family time. That's always a struggle for me to balance work time with family time.

Congratulations! I am looking forward to a day when I can start to enjoy the fruits of my labor. I have been considering women's shows (I believe like trade shows) myself. Glad to know they really do work!